Good Saturday, everyone. We have a powerhouse of a cold front working into the bluegrass state later today. This boundary will crash through here and bring a healthy blast of cold air. There’s even the slight risk for the first snow flurry of the season to show up in the east.

Our day begins with departing showers as skies slowly become party sunny. A mix of sun and clouds will be noted this afternoon with isolated showers around. As the front slams in this evening, a broken line of very gusty showers will move through…

Gusty winds will crank and may reach 30mph-40mph at times. As the front moves through, temps drop some 10-20 degrees in an hour or so. Gusty northwesterly winds will then kick in and that’s a flow that can throw a few sprinkles or snow flurries into the Ohio Valley and the Appalachian Mountains…

Most of that stays north and east of Kentucky, but A flake or two may get very close to us. The best chance for a flake is across the southeast…

Temps by Sunday morning range from the middle 20s to low 30s. Wind chills will be even colder. Sunny skies will only manage to warm us into the upper 40s and low 50s. Gusty winds make it feel colder.

Next week starts with another freeze Monday morning, but some pretty nice weather is on tap through the middle of the week. This actually looks VERY nice!

Late next week into the following week, we begin to see some major buckles in the jet stream…

That can fire up several big, slow-moving storm systems…

I may throw you another update later today. On Sunday, I will show you a new seasonal model for the winter ahead. It’s an attention getter. 😉

12 Responses to A Strong Fall Front Arrives

Mostly dry, windy cold fronts moving through the Ohio Valley is fairly typical for this time of the year. However, I notice this morning that the brunt of the coldest Arctic air is moving south and then east just south of Lake Michigan. This will trigger the first lake effect snows as Chris has shown on the snow map he displayed this morning. Here in central Kentucky we will just see a glancing blow of the Arctic air, which shows up well on the Ventusky site. I expect our first freeze on Monday morning ? Then, when we have the high pressure in the southwest Atlantic push back west we will have Indian Summer hopefully for four or five days before the next cold front arrives.

Just checked the temperatures at five centimeters above ground level where this Arctic cold front is originating in Canada around the Hudson Bay area near Fort Churchill. The temperatures I found were mostly in the teens and twenties and the temperature of Hudson Bay was thirty seven degrees. I thought the above information would interest those who would like to know where this cold front is coming from in detail.

Thanks Chris. I guess it’s that time of year, but I am not really ready for a hard freeze just yet and so cold temps. I know after we get a good freeze we should get Indian summer but with the way ours has been you gotta wonder… anyway great weather for football and changing out those seasonal clothes in the closet. Have a great Saturday everyone and GO CATS!!!

It actually may work out for us to have a small dry stretch of fall temps that includes sunny days! Yeah☺

60s to near 70 in day and upper 30s to right under 50 at night would be optimal for best color development. Trees are just now getting patchy in Harlan with a little more color up high as some nice reds are starting. Still, I have not had my first frost in the valley yet as yesterday was 39 but heavy fog kept everything wet, even the car tops. If we can survive tonight, and especially tomorrow night without going below freezing, we may get a little color yet for what looks to be am overall lack luster fall.

Starting to see some patchy color here in Laurel County as well. I was looking back at pictures from 10/19 last year when I hiked at the red river gorge and the foliage display is similar-mostly green, with patches of color. Still looks like we are more than 7-10 days away from best color.

Terry, you are not that far from Closplint, Kentucky. In that area of eastern Kentucky they receive 31.7 ” of snow on average making it the snowiest place in Kentucky. In my county of Taylor, on average we receive around 12 ” of snow. East is best if you want the best chances of getting more than a few inches.